OP/Grampa, the SR-2 is a great board and has huge potential, but it can be problematic. IF you get a good one, it's a fun and rewarding experience to overclock with it. I was lucky that mine, though older, worked perfectly out of the box.

The CPUs are retail 2600k vs EBay Xeons though, correct?

I realize there are no cheap 2600k chips on Ebay though, so not poking holes in your comparo, just commenting because retail Xeons flirt with $1000.00 each.

But this is predicated on A) Getting a "good" SR-2 and B) those Xeons giving a decent overclock.

My prices are retail. Xeon prices dropped at the beginning of January.

Quote:

Originally Posted by matsta31

Lowfat, Your last sentence leave me a bit confused (must be cause I am french !) but are you saying one Sr-2 will consume considerably more power than 3 X 2600K ? I dont think so.

As "one of those guys" who "had problems with the SR2", I thought i'd chime in.

It took me over two months to get my SR2 working properly. It took stanford to enable bigadv in Linux for it to work to my satisfaction.. workunits are a bit scarce, but show good PPD when I get one. (~155K PPD, haven't tweaked it, NUMA still ON in Debian 6)

I had two 980x, two 920s and two 860s in my basement. My power bill was north of $340/mo (I have oil hot water and heat, and NS has one of the highest energy costs 12c/kwh). I sold off one 980x, two 920 and going to sell off one of my 860 systems.
980x=40-55k PPD, 920=25-35k, 860=30-40k (on a good day, no 2684s) I replaced (in PPD numbers) four boxes. The 980x, two 920s and an 860. For the simple reason of power usage.

It would be great to have three 2600k boxes, but you're looking at 300-350W per box overclocked x3. Compare that to a single SR2 which runs about 400-550W on average. When you factor in the less heat in the room (less air conditioning needed) and the less space needed to put all those boxes (plus KVM, etc) in the long run the SR2 will "win".
But it can be a huge pain in the ass if the motherboard doesn't work properly, which you're probably aware of.

I wouldn't bother watercooling the SR-2, it looks pretty.. and looks all fancy, but most people run into the fsb upper limit on air anyways.. which is 195-210 range.

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Quote:

I'll learn to manage my anger, when people learn to manage their stupid.

An OC'd SR2 will draw right aroung 500W from the wall while each 2600K should draw a max of just over 200W if you use a low power GPU and run a high OC. The difference ends up being under 150W, not too bad. If I was to choose now I'd go with the 2600k for redundance, simplicity and resale value. I'd also be less scared of accidentally taking out a $600 motherboard or having to deal with bugs and RMA's. If you wanted to go with multiple SR2 then replacing them with many 2600k migh not make sense. As it is I'm waiting for next gen high end consumer cpu's to put together a bigadv rig.

So are you ever gonna fold on the thing to give Dephcon a run for his money or just play 3dmark all day or WHAT!???

I know I know! I've even delayed upgrading my server, which is where the X5677's are supposed to end up. It's a sickness. That, I do not deny. The E5645's arrived almost three months ago to the day, and I've yet to so much as open the packaging to make sure it's not just oregano inside. Been burned with that one before.

Honestly, my goal is to begin the upgrades to the server this weekend. I would imagine that I will start actually folding on the SR-2 by the end of the month.

I had two 980x, two 920s and two 860s in my basement. My power bill was north of $340/mo (I have oil hot water and heat, and NS has one of the highest energy costs 12c/kwh). I sold off one 980x, two 920 and going to sell off one of my 860 systems.
980x=40-55k PPD, 920=25-35k, 860=30-40k (on a good day, no 2684s) I replaced (in PPD numbers) four boxes. The 980x, two 920s and an 860. For the simple reason of power usage.

It would be great to have three 2600k boxes, but you're looking at 300-350W per box overclocked x3. Compare that to a single SR2 which runs about 400-550W on average. When you factor in the less heat in the room (less air conditioning needed) and the less space needed to put all those boxes (plus KVM, etc) in the long run the SR2 will "win".
But it can be a huge pain in the ass if the motherboard doesn't work properly, which you're probably aware of.

Some very good points raised!
Thank you to everyone for your input.

Thanks for your input as well Rison.
My reasons for even posing the topic for discussion, highlighted by the bolded portion above.
While I don't mind paying a higher power bill, I figured there had to be a better way to go about doing things. (more environmentally friendly)

Some of you also raised a good point, perhaps its just better for me to play the waiting game (for next generation hardware), and just use my existing hardware to fold.

An OC'd SR2 will draw right aroung 500W from the wall while each 2600K should draw a max of just over 200W if you use a low power GPU and run a high OC. The difference ends up being under 150W, not too bad.

I would guess a system with low powered vid card somewhere in the 225-250W range when folding..
Most online sources show the CPU at 4.4Ghz at over 112W by itself (from the base 86W it draws at stock clocks) Factor in having older power supplies and such, and the fact most will try for 4.7+Ghz, it would bump the wattage somewhat.

I was a bit off by saying 350W, that's for sure.. I wasn't aware of the 1155's lower power consumption. I'll probably be getting a 2600k soon anyways, and i'll compare that versus my SR-2 w/ dual 5645's @ 3.7Ghz and post the results. I don't have a line regulator, but i'll be comparing them through the same outlet at the same point in time (for any variance with line voltage, which could skew power results)

And yeah, the factoring in air conditioning thing I learned this past summer.. when I ran a 12,000 BTU air conditioner 24/7 to cool the basement with all my folding rigs.
It would be nice to have utilities paid for, however you hit the nail on the head about environmental impact with the entire setup.

Anywho, in about 2 weeks i'll have some real numbers to throw at the power consumption issue - because it is a HUGE issue for me right now, and i'm looking to scale back with the most power/heat effective farm.

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Quote:

I'll learn to manage my anger, when people learn to manage their stupid.